The 2012–13 IRB Sevens World Series, known for sponsorship reasons as the HSBC Sevens World Series, was the 14th annual series of rugby sevens tournaments for full national sides. The IRB Sevens World Series has been run by the International Rugby Board since 1999–2000.

Itinerary The schedule for the 2012–13 series was released in late June 2012. At the time, the schedule included a new event to be held in La Plata, Argentina. However, on 16 August, the Argentine Rugby Union pulled out of hosting an event in 2012–13, citing demands associated with the country's 2012 entry into The Rugby Championship.

2012–13 Itinerary Leg Venue Date Winner Australia Skilled Park, Gold Coast 13–14 October 2012 Dubai The Sevens, Dubai 30 Nov–1 Dec 2012 South Africa Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, Port Elizabeth 8–9 December 2012 New Zealand Westpac Stadium, Wellington 1–2 February 2013 United States Sam Boyd Stadium, Las Vegas 8–10 February 2013 Hong Kong Hong Kong Stadium, Hong Kong 22–24 March 2013 Japan Chichibunomiya Rugby Stadium, Tokyo 30–31 March 2013 Scotland Scotstoun Stadium. Glasgow 4–5 May 2013 England Twickenham, London 11–12 May 2013

Core teams Before each season, the IRB announces the "core teams" that received guaranteed berths in each event of that season's series. This was the first series in which 15 teams received this status, up from 12 in the recent past. All 12 core teams from 2011–12 retained their status, with three more being elevated as top finishers in a 12-team qualifying tournament conducted as part of the 2012 Hong Kong Sevens. The 2012–13 core teams are:

Promotion and relegation For the first time, the IRB instituted a formal promotion and relegation process for core team status in the Sevens World Series, replacing the former ad hoc process. The top 12 core teams in the season table after the next-to-last round of the series in Glasgow retained their status for 2013–14. The remaining three core teams for 2013–14 are being determined in a two-stage qualifying process: The first stage was a World Series Pre-Qualifier held as part of the 2013 Hong Kong Sevens. Two qualifiers from each of the IRB's six regions competed. The 12 teams were drawn into three pools, with the top two teams from each pool, plus the top two runners-up, advancing to a quarterfinal round. The winners of the four quarterfinal matches (Russia, Zimbabwe, Tonga, and Georgia) advanced to the second stage. The final stage, the World Series Core Team Qualifier, was held as part of the 2013 London Sevens. The pre-qualifiers were joined by Hong Kong, which earned its spot by winning the HSBC Asian Sevens Series, plus the bottom three core teams following the Scotland Sevens. The qualifier was conducted with a pool stage followed by knockout play, with the two finalists and the winner of the third-place match becoming 2013–14 core teams.

Final standings

The points awarded to teams at each event, as well as the overall season totals, are shown in the table below. Gold indicates the event champions. Silver indicates the event runner-ups. Bronze indicates the event third place finishers. A zero (0) is recorded in the event column where a team competed in a tournament but did not gain any points. A dash (–) is recorded in the event column if a team did not compete at a tournament.

+ 2012–13 IRB Sevens – Series XIVPos. Gold CoastDubaiPort ElizabethWellingtonLas VegasHong KongTokyoGlasgowLondonPointstotal   119 19 22 17 19 17 19 19 22 173217 7 17 10 22 5 22 22 10 132322 10 12 7 15 22 10 10 13 1214 10 22 7 15 17 13 10 5 5 1045 15 17 5 19 1 15 5 7 15 996 7 3 5 22 5 8 8 17 17 927 5 13 13 3 10 19 5 15 8 918 10 1 8 13 3 10 17 8 19 899 12 15 19 5 8 3 15 3 7 8710 13 8 15 10 7 2 7 12 10 8411 2 5 10 1 10 5 13 13 12 7112 5 12 1 8 13 12 3 10 5 69 13 3 5 1 12 12 1 12 5 – 51 14 1 10 10 1 1 10 1 1 – 35 15 8 2 3 5 5 1 1 1 – 26 16 – – – – – 7 – – – 7 17 1 – – 2 – – – – – 3 18 – 1 – – – – – 2 – 3 19 – – – – – – 2 – – 2 20 – – – – 2 – – – – 2 21 – – 2 – – – – – – 2 22 – – – – – – – – – 0 Source: rugby7.com (archived) {| class="wikitable" style="font-size:92%;" |- !colspan=2| Legend |- |bgcolor=#FFD700|Gold |Event Champions |- |bgcolor=#C0C0C0|Silver |Event Runner-ups |- |bgcolor=#CD7F32|Bronze |Event Third place finishers |- |No colour |Core team in 2012–13 and re-qualified for 2013–14 |- |bgcolor=#ffc|Yellow |Invited team |- |style="border-left:3px solid #7cf;"|Blue bar |Re-qualified for 2013–14 via the 2013 London Sevens core team qualifier tournament |- |style="border-left:3px solid #f46;"|Red bar |Failed to qualify for 2013–14 via 2013 London Sevens core team qualifier tournament

Player statistics Points scored Points scored Pos. PlayerPoints 1 264 2 247 3 241 4 237 5 221 6 190 7 189 8 187 9 180 10 175

Tries scored Tries scored Pos. PlayerTries 1 52 2 38 3 35 4 29 5 29 6 27 7 268 25

Tournaments

Gold Coast

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 32–14 Plate 14–7 Bowl 19–14 Shield 40–5

Dubai

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 26–15 Plate 21–14 Bowl 14–10 Shield 26–5

South Africa

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 47–12 Plate 26–14 Bowl 26–14 Shield 33–0

Wellington

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 24–19 Plate 22–7 Bowl 28–19 Shield 26–21

United States

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 40–21 Plate 22–5 Bowl 17–12 Shield 41–0

Hong Kong

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 26–19 Plate 12–7 Bowl 42–7 Shield 19–14 World Seriespre-qualifier 22–19

Japan

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 24–19 Plate 17–0 Bowl 38–0 Shield 27–14

Scotland

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup 28–21 Plate 17–7 Bowl 12–5 Shield 21–17

London

EventWinnersScoreFinalistsSemifinalistsCup47–12Plate14–5Bowl19–7

Dream Team

The 2012–13 HSBC Sevens World Series 'Dream Team' was selected by the series' regular television broadcast commentators.

Afa Aiono Frankie Horne Tim Mikkelson Joji Ragamate Gilles Kaka Willy Ambaka Dan Norton

References

External links